On Talking About God

NOTE: While we were working on All Y’all Live: OMG, Sara and I found ourselves thinking about – and discussing – faith quite a bit. We wanted to share some of those thoughts here. -Chris

When it comes to the topic of church, I grew up in a really strange household. My mom was a Jehovah’s Witness, but my dad only attended the church (churches are called “Kingdom Halls” in the JW community) on special occasions such as Passover, or when a visiting “brother” from another congregation would speak at our church. Our own “brothers” – that’s what the pastors were called – would pull out all of the stops to try and drum up attendance for those special guests, and my dad would reluctantly put on his grey polyester suit and allow my mom to comb his hair. This arrangement was an exact replica of the situation with my maternal grandparents – my grandmother, Barnie Mae, was (and still is) very religious, while my grandfather would make himself scarce most Sundays, preferring to quietly read over his racing form in the dappled shade of a persimmon tree, slowly smoking menthol cigarettes.

As a very young child, I remember going “door to door” in strange neighborhoods, knocking on doors and hoping that no one would answer. When no one answered, I was let off easy – I’d just wedge a tract (a miniature brochure, usually one with a title like What Happens When We Die?) into the screen door and move along. A worse scenario would involve someone actually answering the door, and in a gut-wrenching turn of events, I might be invited in to sit down in someone’s living room and talk about Jehovah. I was probably eight years old – what did I know about God?

I say all of that to say this: I have never been comfortable talking to other people about God. For all intents and purposes, I am an agnostic who admires people of faith. I have avoided the question entirely; I have left that page intentionally blank.

None of the stories that you’ll hear at “OMG” are really about capital-G-God. There won’t be any sermons. A couple have nothing whatsoever to do with spirituality or the church. But all of them, I realize now, are still about faith.

-Chris Jay

—

As people who aren’t particularly religious or spiritual, approaching a topic like “OMG” was particularly daunting. However, we wanted to take on the subject to put ourselves in the uncomfortable place of understanding people who aren’t like us – people who know that God (or something like God) exists and is guiding their life in a very singular direction. If anything, putting together the storyteller lineup was an experiment in empathy.

It reminded me of how valuable it is to listen to people with different views. I often found myself sitting across the table from someone who undeniably had their lives changed by something. The majority of my friends are also agnostic or atheist and we rarely if ever talk about why or how we came about to those beliefs. The longer I work on All Y’all, the more I realize that surrounding oneself with people of the same beliefs and viewpoints is dangerous. It’s easy for me to say Republicans are stupid; however, it’s harder to say that after one has bore their heart  to me at my kitchen table. At some point, both that Republican and I have been our most vulnerable, basic human, suffering under the labors of the world. And that common experience is greater than any political alignment or religious belief. Given the opportunity, that commonality could lead to cooperation.

-Sara Hebert